You only need a handful of supplies for this cute little piece, and you don’t even have to paint it! I chose to use painters tape and to paint turquoise stripes along the the top and bottom, but you don’t need to get that complicated. You can paint anything from all to none of it – it’s totally up to you.

If you don’t have any starfish sitting around, I think a shell would look pretty cute on this wine cork panel, too! Get creative. =)

Supplies needed to make a piece of wine cork starfish beach art

8wine corks. They need to be the same size for this project to work out

2 screw eyes/eye screws – readily available at basically any hardware or home improvement store

If you live somewhere that doesn’t have shells or starfish available at a local decor or craft store, I recommend you check out Etsy store CB Sidewalk Sale. It’s the digital face of a locally-owned bead store in Charleston, SC and the owner is a fantastic lady. I frequently shopped at her store when I lived in Charleston and she’s still my go-to source for a lot of supplies.

For the wine corks, you do need corks that are the same size. If you drink wine, you can always save a few corks up then craft with them. If you’re not a drinker, you can find corks in craft stores or on Amazon. I purchase lots of winery-quality corks for my store products and recommend these #8 straight sided corks.

And for a final note on supplies, let’s talk glue.

I find low temp hot glue a very poor way to glue wine corks together. It really doesn’t hold well. Hot glue can work for attaching the starfish, though, and high temp hot glue may work for the whole project. (Are you confused by the different types of hot glue? Check out mytop hot glue tips & tricks!)

I prefer to use E6000 or Tacky Glue to hold corks together. E6000 holds firmly more quickly, but it also smells kind of like the Grim Reaper.

For this tutorial, I used Tacky Glue. You do have to let it fully dry before painting, attaching the starfish, etc., but it isn’t stinky like the E6000. Notice the warnings on the E6000 tube and the lack of warnings on the Tacky Glue:

How to make mini beach art with wine corks

1. Grab your glue and corks! Place bead of glue down one cork, then stick another cork to lengthwise. Try to make the top/bottom of the corks align as much as possible.

2. Put glue down a third cork and attach it to the corks you glued together in step 1. Do this again to make a row of four glued-together corks.

3. Repeat with four more corks to create a second row of corks.

4. Carefully apply glue to the top of one row of corks, then attach it to the bottom of the other set of corks. Go ahead and do this while the glue is still wet on your sets of corks because you may need to adjust them a little to get them so sit flat against one another in the middle. If possible, press the two sets of corks against each other for a minute or two in order to help them set, then don’t mess with the entire piece until the glue is fully dried. If you can see some glue and it’s still white, it isn’t dry – wait until it’s basically clear. Moving your piece too soon will make it fall apart and you’ll have to start over!

5. Once the glue is fully cured, you can paint. Yay! You may want to just paint the tops/bottoms:

Alternatively, you can paint the whole thing, or go for the middle ground. I used painters’ tape to make a nice line across the top and bottom to give my corks a striped, nautical appearance.

6. Allow the paint to dry (this shouldn’t take long! Most craft paint dries in just a few minutes) then screw the eye screws in place. I put them into the outside corks, as shown. You shouldn’t need a drill, awl, or anything else to make holes – just screw them in.

7. Glue your starfish or shell on. You’ll probably need a more gap-filling glue for this part. I used clear gel Tacky Glue, but hot glue works well here. Allow the glue to fully set.

8. Tie on your ribbon or twine hanger and enjoy!

Easy-peasy, right? Even if you think you can’t craft I believe in you – you can totally do this!

It’s actually kind of funny to me that I’m writing a beachy crafting tutorial this week because it’s shaping up to be quite a non-beach week for me. It’s been in the 60s and night, barely into the 70s during much of the day, and super windy. No way I’m hanging out at the beach in this weather! I realize that depending on where you live, that may sound like a dream come true for early March, but I’m chilly!

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